World Food Day: Spotlight on global hunger

Today marks World Food Day, which was established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to raise awareness of global hunger and shine a light on agriculture while encouraging development and solidarity.

Approximately 868 million people globally are undernourished, or roughly one in eight, according to FAO. Of those, the majority (approximately 304 million) live in southern Asia, with sub-Saharan Africa next with 234 million people undernourished.

This year’s theme focuses on agricultural cooperatives because of their role in alleviating hunger and increasing food security, according to FAO.

Although efforts to reduce hunger have made an impact, most of the change occurred prior to 2007-2008. Since then, progress has begun to plateau, according The State of Food Insecurity in the World report. However, because of revisions in the FAO methodology, some of the estimates may not fully represent the repercussions of the global economic downturn and food price increases.